In honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of science fiction author A.E. van Vogt (1912-2000), I am publishing an essay on his life and work at the Los Angeles Reviewof Books, as well as several review essays on his major works (see below).

Science fiction writer A.E. van Vogt,who would have celebrated his 100thbirthday on April 26, introduced a newterm into the literary vocabulary: thefix-up. A fix-up is a novel constructedout of shorter works of fiction, a kindof Frankenstein's monster of narrative,stitched together with hopes that theseams don't show. Read more atthe Los Angeles Review of Books

During the period in which A.E. van Vogt was writing this novel, electric pinball machines were showing up in drugstores, taverns and arcades throughout America, and the pinball flipper was introduced. I like to think of van Vogt's stories as the literary equivalent of those postwar pinball machines.... To read more, click here

Welcome to the world of A.E.van Vogt, the madcap storyteller who goes through plots faster than an otolaryngologist uses up tongue depressers. If writing fiction were simply a matter of setting up conflicts and resolutions, which lead to more conflicts and resolutions…well, van Vogt would have won the Nobel Prize in literature. As it stands, his books are more slapdash than sublime, yet captivating in their sheer manic energy.... To read more, click here

The World of Null-A stands out as one of the best known and most controversial novels of the so-called Golden Age of science fiction. Due to its prominence, when it was first published in book form back in 1949, as the first significant trade hardcover sci-fi release, the book found a large crossover audience, and was probably the first work of speculative fiction read mymany of its purchasers.....To read more, click here